Dentists, Water-play, and Ladybugs

Last week, some dentists visited our classroom to teach us how to properly brush, floss, and take care of our precious teeth! Our kids got to participate in some dental related activities, sing, dance, and ask questions.

Some important things for our parents and kids to remember:

1. Always brush before breakfast. Bacteria in our mouths love food as much as we do, and after they’re done feasting, they excrete acid (or leave acid behind, on our teeth), which damages our pearly whites, and can ultimately lead to cavities.

2. Brush in circular motions. Also, up, down, and side to side. See video for reference.

3. Brush for two minutes — no less. Put on your favorite song and brush along to it! It’s important we give the fluoride enough time to eliminate all the germs before we rinse. Another tip: don’t gargle water, just let the fluoride do its thing!

We learned about good and bad foods, or healthy and unhealthy foods. We did an activity to show foods that hurt our teeth, and foods that benefit our teeth. Healthy foods include meat and crunchy vegetables and some not so healthy foods are donuts and ice cream. Soft and sugary foods cause cavities — brush right after consumption!

Outdoor Fun in the Sun

Here are some pictures of water play on the yard, and some fairies, ladybugs, and butterflies also.

Thank you, God, for this blessed weather, the breeze, the happiness of the children, their and our health, and for sunshine! Stay blessed, hydrated, and happy!

Room 1

Middle of March Madness

Spring is here! And also summer! LA’s heat wave hit us like a ton of bricks but we’ve got ice packs – literally. While there is a heat warning in effect, you can rest assured we three are extremely mindful of the temperature, monitoring every student’s water intake, and are encouraging them to play in or with water to help them keep cool. Fortunately, the heat breaks on soon — this Friday, March 20.

Here are some photos of the carefully crafted spaces developed by Ms. Gwen, Ms. Liah, and Ms. Kira, and the kids in action.

Small Group Activities

This week Ms. Kira curated a host of fun activities for our kiddos, including science projects, journaling, and fine-motor practice worksheets.

* Turquoise Butterflies *

Ms. Kira discussed the life cycle of plants, and presented images and an activity to really nail it in.

* Purple Dragons *

Ms. Ray discussed the anatomy of certain bugs, arachnids, and other species. Questions discussed and things deliberated upon, including but not limited to: how many legs does a bug have; what makes a spider different from a bug; what’s invertebrate? Bugs and insects mentioned: ladybugs, spiders, ants, etc.

The next day Ms. Ray did an HEA activity with the students, further discussing Jingles, Poems, and Rhymes.

* Pink Unicorns *

Ms. Alyisa did a Saint Patrick’s Day inspired activity involving tempera paint sticks, markers, and green paper. Many kids opted to draw a rainbow with some treasure at the end. Some discussion about what St. Patty’s Day is truly about took place (evangelism!).

The next day Ms. Alyisa observed as the kids tried their hand at cutting straight lines up. This activity, along with many other projects we have completed in class, will be available for appraising at the end of the school year, in their portfolios. I must mention, our class has greatly progressed when it comes to cutting, writing, or doing small tasks with their fingers/hands.

Please, continue to dress your child in porous clothing, put ice in their water bottles, and sunscreen on their faces! Also, the mosquitos are back and biting. If your child does not have their own personal bug spray, please supply us with some – we apply it before going outside each day.

Stay hydrated!

Room 1 👩🏾‍🏫👩🏾‍🏫👩🏻‍🏫

🌷🧺🎀 ~ Valentine’s Day Parties ~ 💝⭐️🎁

Our long awaited Valentine’s Day parties have begun. Sweets, treats, and hearts all around! What a delight to witness the benevolent Spirit of God weaving throughout and within our students, their parents, and two gift exchanges.

Some friends in pink, crafting, storytelling, and exchanging!

Our Valentine’s Day board carefully and creatively designed by Ms. Ray!

I’ve separated our photos into two days, or sections. Day 1 is Thur, Feb 12. Day 2 is Fri, Feb 13.

Day 1 🎀

One of our student’s father visited our classroom to share his guitar and voice with us! He allowed each student to strum on his guitar, and sang ‘Jesus Loves Me,’ and other worship songs. What a treat!

Our little guitarists strumming away!

Day 2 🌷

On Day 2 of our party, we had four parent volunteers in the classroom! I.e., lots of extra hands to help prep activities, snacks, tidy up, and play!

Room 1 loves a parent volunteer. They sat very proper, eagerly listening. Many heartfelt thanks to those who could join us and make their day extra special!

🎁💝 ~ Gift Exchange ~ ⭐️🎀

🎀🌷Sharing valentines with friends! Such a sweet exchange. Each child got toys and trinkets to take home and enjoy!

🍦🍓 ~ Ice Cream Gallery ~ 🍫🍨

Ms. Kira takes on an ice cream making project! She allowed each child to assist her in making the ice cream from scratch. Using heavy cream, whole milk, vanilla, sugar, rock salt and lots of ice, she was able to make a huge batch of uber-delicious vanilla ice cream. Each child had a quarter of a cup or so, with their choice of topping: strawberry or chocolate syrup, chocolate chips, fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or plain!

Ms. Kira allowed any students who volunteer to take turns churning the fresh ice cream! They got to witness the process, do the work, and reap the rewards at the end. And what a reward it was (excellent ice cream, Kira — good job).

That’s about it. Happy Valentine’s Day and President’s Day! Enjoy the long weekend and we’ll see you on Tuesday.

Room 1 (Ms. Kira, Ray, and Alyisa)

⭐️🏂 ~ Snow Day!!! ~ ⭐️🏂

We had some freezy, frosty fun in the California sun last week. Our Room 1 friends came ready to play in all their snow gear (tiny snow pants, boots, and gloves). They enjoyed the snow, to say the very least.

Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to help and play with the kids on both snow days. They had a blast! We had some very strong mothers manning the slope for sledding. We’d’ve been very sore without you.

Photos from our early morning frenzy (~8am) in the fresh snow our second day of snow play alongside the younger pod.

We are so grateful for such a wonderfully pleasant experience, opportunity, and overall good time. God had his protective hand over the children and for that, we’re blessed and thankful!

Until next winter,

Room 1

Farm Day with Room 1

It’s a new year and the weather faired perfect for our annual field trip to Underwood Family Farms!

We had an awesome turnout and just a blast this Friday learning about the phases of vegetation, how to pick certain crops, bumping along on the tractor, plucking vegetables straight out of the ground, feeding farm animals (chickens, goats, potbelly pigs) and more.

The kids witnessed The Animal Show! Rats racing, pigs snorting, and cats a-rolling.

God truly blessed our day, and we’re very grateful he allowed everything to go well.

Until next time. Rm 1

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

What a wonderful turnout; what a wonderful show. No SOS on the preschool front, the kids performed splendidly!

Enjoy these photos of your little Santa’s

Take a look at these from Fri, Dec 12

Grandparent’s Day

Thanks for all your support! We’re blessed to have such a lovely lot of children this year. God bless & we wish you a Merry Christmas!

Room 1

Details & important dates! (URGENT)

Coming up:

Grandparent’s Day (Dec 12)

Happy Birthday Jesus (Dec 13)

⭐️ HBJ ⭐️

Whether you’re just stopping by or a parent volunteer, we look forward to seeing you before the Christmas performance on Saturday. Please arrive at or after 10 a.m. to join the fun, crafts, and Christmas magic.

Arrival window and crafts 10 a.m. till 10:45 a.m

Program begins at 11 a.m. and ends at 12 p.m.

⭐️ GD ⭐️

Grandparent’s Day – minimum day!

We’ll perform for the grandparents at 9 a.m. and go home at 12 p.m.

Here are some things we’ve been up to recently:

• Things to keep in mind and look forward to:

⭐️ PJ & Hot Cocoa Day – Thurs, Dec 18 and Fri, Dec 19

Please send your child to school dressed in festive, comfortable pajamas and ready for hot chocolate, Christmas movies, and more!

Friday, Dec 19, also the last day of school before break, is a minimum day.

⭐️ Christmas Break – Mon, Dec 22 to Fri, Jan 2

Merry Christmas!

Our busy, busy week!

We’ve been all over the place this week: outside soaking up the sun on Ms. Gwen’s and Ms. Liah’s patio; running around on the big field; and visiting our campus library for the very first time!

Here we have a small group activity where our students practice drawing ovals, circles, and lines, and predominantly ovals. They were asked probing questions like: what shape is an oval? (General answers from students: “A long circle!” or “A football!”). Ms. Alyisa ran this activity and had fun drawing her own pictures to inspire the kids. (See sun with sunglasses for reference.) Much fruitful thought and conversation was had!

Here’s another small group activity featuring porridge! AKA oatmeal. This activity was a blast and they loved oatmeal! If your child asks for oatmeal, ask Alyisa for the recipe. She used maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla, and lots of love.

The kids got to measure out oats and milk, pour, and mix.

This is an outdoor activity set up by Ms. Liah. This sensory bin merely started with hay and soil, and now it’s an ecosystem! The kids found some carrots from last week’s Carrot Hunt activity and added it to this new one. The kids added bugs, animals, and more.

Everything below was captured out on Ms. Gwen’s patio. She always does such a fine job thinking up projects and cute crafts for our young minds. Thank you, Ms. Gwen!

The letter of the week is G! For the past few weeks, Ms. Gwen has had capital and lowercase letters of the week out on the writing center with little pictures of things that start with that letter and some glue. If you zoom in, you can see mini goats, gorillas, and geese. So clever!

And finally, our rainy day play! Rainy day schedule is kind of difficult for them, and us teachers! No outside time, no running or yelling or soaking up sunshine. But Room 1 did an excellent job today, going with the flow, reading many stories and playing along with one another.

We started practicing our Happy Birthday Jesus song with Room 2 this week!

Below are more photos. Consult your child for more details!

Our visit to the campus library & weekly big field.

As adults, we’re so immune to everything (“we’ve seen it all”) but these kids are experiencing everything for the first time! They truly have a wonder about them that we are severely lacking. Oh, that God has given us children to remind us how great life and creation is!

New month, new challenges

We have chosen some new table top and small group activities, all of which will serve to improve our students gross and fine motor skills, including, but not limited to, free water color painting, Legos, and spelling the letters of their names in table salt.

And speaking of spelling the letters of their names, Ms. Kira has set out sign-in sheets for our kids to practice recognizing and tracing their own name in the mornings when parents first come in to drop off their kids. They’ll find their names directly behind the sign-in area.

All this in preparation for kindergarten. We want nothing less than for our students to leave here ready for and able to succeed in kindergarten.

Here’s the sensory activity with table salt. Above you’ll find Ms. Alyisa’s *Pink Unicorns* using one finger to draw the first letter of their names.

*Purple Dragons* patterning and completing an HEA activity with Ms. Kira.

*Turquoise Butterflies* drawing things that start with the letter G with Ms. Ray.

We’re fostering the spirit of curiosity in our students, not snuffing it out. Their creativity and imaginative are encouraged. As you can see, there are no boundaries, no barriers, no wrong answers.

Things to ask your child today:

What shapes or things did you draw in the “white sand” today?
What did you do in Ms. Kira’s group?
In your journal, what did you draw that starts with the letter G?
What are some words or things that start with the letter G?

Have a nice Monday!

Apple & Pumpkin Day

Oct 30: Apple Day

Today is Apple Day, which marks the first festivity and parent helper of the year. Our students witnessed the arduous task of making apple sauce, molded their own apples out of modeling clay, and ran freely outside in the warm autumn sunshine, among other things.

Ms. Kira kindly printed and set out some coloring sheets of cute apples.

Overall, Apple Day was a success and the applesauce was a hit, albeit a tad cumbersome.

Oct 31: Pumpkin Day

The kids arrived at school excitable and ready for the day! Today’s agenda: pumpkin spice pancakes with Ms. Kira (spoiler: they were delicious), adorn miniature pumpkins with tissue paper using a paint brush and glue solution, and read some stories about spooky underwear and big green monsters.

See tissue covered pumpkins below.

A friend brought a book in today called: “Creepy Pair of Underwear” and “Room on the Broom,” and below you’ll see a parent reading it aloud to the kids. They were enthralled, not only by the book but his animation! Infliction and humor will get you very far with this bunch.

Pancakes! These were a hit, as they were sure to be! Groups of 6 got to assist Ms. Kira in making the batter and she whipped them up lickety-split! Our little chefs waited eagerly and got to have a pancake with some pumpkin butter and maple syrup. I didn’t get any pictures because I was eating them too. They were delightful: warm and cinnamon-ey, perfect for the season.

Happy Friday!

“I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭145‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬